GP saves boy's life with household drill

An Australian country GP has saved a boy's life by using a household drill to bore into his brain after he was injured in a bike accident.

Nicholas Rossi pictured with with his dad, Michael, and mum Karen at Parkville in MelbournePhoto: REX FEATURES

By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney

4:50AM BST 20 May 2009

The astonishing procedure took place after Nicholas Rossi, 13, fell off his bike in the small rural town of Maryborough in Victoria and hit his head.

He was not wearing a helmet, and the impact knocked him momentarily unconscious.

He recovered enough to go home, but complained to his mother Karen, a trained nurse, of a bad headache. Mrs Rossi took her son to district hospital where Dr Rob Carson, a local GP, was on duty, his family told The Australian newspaper.

The boy was kept under observation, but one hour later, he started drifting in and out of consciousness. Dr Carson recognised the problem as internal bleeding in the skull and noticed that one of Nicholas's pupils was larger than the other, another sign of bleeding that was placing pressure on the brain. The injury was the same that recently led to the death of actress Natasha Richardson after a skiing accident.

Dr Carson believed Nicholas had torn an artery just above his ear between his skull and his brain, creating a large and life-threatening blood clot.

In scenes reminiscent of a television medical drama, Dr Carson realised he had minutes to save the boy's life and there was no time to transfer his patient to a hospital with a dedicated brain surgery unit. Instead, he telephoned Dr David Wallace, a neurosurgeon 105 miles away in Melbourne, to help talk him through the operation - which he had never attempted before.

But there was one problem. The hospital was not equipped with a surgical drill. Instead, Dr Carson had to use the next best thing - a household drill found in the hospital's maintenance cupboard. He disinfected the drill and, under Dr Wallace's guidance, used it to bore into Nicholas's skull to release the blood clot.

Aided by a team of nurses and an anaesthetist, the doctor drained the excess blood out of Nicholas's head. He knew the unorthodox procedure had worked when the boy's pupil returned to its normal size. The team kept Nicholas alive until he was airlifted to Melbourne one hour later.

He was released from hospital on Tuesday.

Michael Rossi, Nicholas's father, said his son's neurosurgeon told him Dr Carson's bravery had meant the difference between life and death.

"To have done that with a household drill ... he said it was unbelievable," he told the Daily Telegraph.

Once the severity of Nicholas's injury became clear, Dr Carson and his team had turned the casualty ward into a makeshift operating theatre in 15 minutes, Mr Rossi said.

"Dr Carson came out and said 'I'm going to have to drill a hole in Nick's head, we have got once chance and one chance only, if it is successful he will arrive in Melbourne in a lot better shape than if we don't do anything..

"'If it's not successful he will be in an air ambulance within minutes, but it's something that I must do', he said."

Mr Rossi said he and his wife were unaware that Dr Carson was using a household De Walt drill during the surgery, but said they "trusted his judgement." They learned of the remarkable substitution after Nicholas arrived in Melbourne, he said.